Acts: Strengthening Young Disciples

As they lead us. If you have your Bibles, I

hope you do. If you'll turn with me, and if

you have them, show up to me and raise them up.

If you got even them with there on the phone,

that's good. Hey, it's good that we have God's word.

And I hope that you not only have God's words,

you've been in God's word this week this morning. If

you have your bible's turned with me Acts chapter fourteen,

and we're going to start in verse twenty one in

just a moment talking to my sermon this morning is

strengthening young disciples. Have you ever been a time in

your life where you wanted to get stronger at something

and you realize, hey, I'm really weak at this. This

is something in my life that I just really struggle with,

and I want to get better at this. And so

maybe you say, I want to get I want to

be a better cook, So maybe you took some cooking

classes to get a little better there. Maybe you wanted

to get stronger and physically, so maybe you went to

a fitness class to get in better shape. Maybe you say,

I'm really struggling with my personal finances, so maybe you

take a financial peace class. I don't know what it is,

but maybe there's some things in your life. There's times

where you just realize, you know what, I'm not as

strong as I need to be in this area in

my life. There was ten years ago, probably more, I

had an ambition that I wanted to be a runner.

I had some friends who were running five k's ten

k's half marathons, and I said, you know what, they're

in my age. If they can do it, I can

do it too. And so I got on the app

called Couchha five K and I run my first five

K and so but I determined that I wanted to

get better at that. One things that I realized over

the last few years, many years of going on mission trips,

that one thing my struggle is is I struggled with languages.

I only really know Spanish, and when we go on

a mission trip to Tanzania and they speak Swahili. Devin Warfield,

our children's pastor, he's gifted in linguistics. He is just

gifted at speaking different languages. We went to Tanzania last

year and I've been Tanzania like five times, and I

know just you know a few words like hello and

thank you and those by the time we left that

trip ten days later, Devon's practically speaking Swahili in like

ten days, you know. And so you know when we

go to Mexico and they're speaking Spanish. We have team

members there who are good at that and I'm not.

And I realize many times every time I go on missions,

I need to get better at learning different languages. And

why do I want that? Or reason I want that?

Because I want to be able to communicate. I want

to speak and be able to share the gospel. But

that comes with it by awareness of realizing, you know what,

my brother is strong in this and I'm not, and

I need to be stronger in that. And so in

order for me to get better, get stronger, I have

to work at it. I have to do something to

strengthen my help my use of languages, or strengthen myself

physically and running a half marathon or whatever it may be. Now,

I want to ask you today, have you ever thought

about this in relation to your faith? What are areas

in your faith that you're weak in? As a disciple

Jesus Christ. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are

a disciple and you're called to grow in your faith

to become stronger in your faith? And what are areas

in your life that you're weaken And the question I

ask you today, and what are you doing to get stronger?

You'll go to a cooking class and get better at cooking,

and go go to a fitness class and get stronger

than your fitness. You'll go to maybe a language class

to get better at a language. You'll do different things

to get stronger in different areas of your life. But

what are you doing to get stronger in your faith? Well,

this morning, as we come to this passage of Scripture,

we are seeing Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas is

on their first missionary journey and they've gone town to

town sharing the gospel. And as we look at this

passage this morning, after they finished their last stop, and

it's a stop in Derby, preaching the gospel leading people

to Christ, Scripture shows the reverse course. They go back

to the direction they came and they go town to

town city, the city of every place they stopped and

shared the gospel. And Scripture says that the purpose of

going back through every city was that they might strengthen

the young disciples. You see, they knew in every town

that they just came through, there were young believers, and

their young believers were weak in some area of some areas,

and so they went through these towns in order to

strengthen them, in order to help them. And so this

morning I want to look at how did Paul and

Barnabas do that. How do they strengthen the faith of

these young disciples? And this morning, I hope as we

look at it together, you could say, as a believer,

you know, there's some areas that I'm weaken, and this

is how I get stronger in that area. But also

I hope that there will be those here today. And

you are a disciple, you're maybe you're an older believer,

you're an older disciple, and you may look at this

passage today and say, you know what this is how

I can help strengthen a young disciple. I know. So,

whether you where you see this passage today of saying

how do I become stronger in my faith or how

can I strengthen others? I hope today that God will

use his word to strengthen you. Amen, Let's stand together

and read God's word together. It's the passage is acts fourteen,

starting verse twenty one, and Scripture says this, this is

the word of God. And when they preached the Gospel

to the city, and they made many disciples, they returned

to Listra Tyconium to Antioch, strengthening the souls of disciples,

encourage them to continue in faith, say that through many

tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God. And when

they appointed elders from them in every church, with prayer

and fascinating, they committed them to the Lord in whom

they had believed. And when it passed through the Citia

and came to Pamphinalia, and when they had spoken the

word of Perga and came down to Italia. From there

they sailed to Antioch, and where they had been commended

to the grace of God for the work that they

had fulfilled. And when they had arrived, they gathered to

church together and declared all that God had done with them,

and how he opened the door of faith to the gentiles,

and remained there. I mean, they remained no little time

with the disciples. Let's pray together, Father, we come together

Lord as a body of believers. Lord today, and Lord

we come in one accord. And Lord that's to worship

you Lord and spirit and in truth. And so today now,

in this moment, in this next thirty minutes or so, Lord,

as we Lord, worship you through your word and learn

to look to it, to examine it, that it might

be a mirror into our own souls. Today, Lord, I

pray this time would be a time where we would

put away all distractions. Lord, help us with that, and Lord,

help us set our mind and our affections upon you. Lord,

and may your word today, Lord speak to our hearts. Lord,

we pray to your Holy Spirit would guide us through

your word, give us understanding. And Lord, I pray in

the ways that you lead to day. Lord, I pray

we respond the Lord to the work of your holy spirits. So, Lord,

we come today asking God work today moving our hearts,

moving our minds, open our hearts, open our minds. And Lord,

we surrender you today. Lord, we love you. We thank

you Lord for this moment. In your name, we pray, Amen,

you may be seated. So how our young disciples strengthen?

How are young disciples strengthened? The first way we see

in the scripture that Paula Barnabas strengthens young disciples. Is

that God's word strengthens young's disciples soul. It's the word

of God that strengthens the young disciple souls. As we

come to this pastor of the scripture, as I said,

there they have preached the gospel. In Verse twenty tells

us they preach the gospel in Derby, and many people

come to know the Lord. And the Bible says, when

they finished that, they returned course, they go back to

the direction they came, and they come to this area

of the town to town. The Scripture says in verse

twenty one, they preached the gospel of the city and

made me in disciples. They returned to Alystra, to Iconium Antioch.

They go city to city, and the Bible says, what

was the purpose of that in verse twenty one, and

I mean verse twenty two. And they did this to

strengthen the souls of disciples. Now you would ask, and

I would ask, would look at this passage, what exactly

how did they do that? Well, we know the first

way that they strengthened the souls of disciples was the

teaching of God's word. You know, Scripture tells us, if

you remember the great commission I mean, you know, when

we hear the great commission, we know of Matthew twenty eight.

And let's look at that passes together to be on

the screen. The Matthew twenty eight. The Bible says in

verse eighteen, and Jesus came and said to them, all

authority in heaven on earth have been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples and heaven on earth. I'm sorry,

and all disciples baptizing, I mean all disciples of all nations,

baptizing the name of the Father's Son and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them. Observe all that I've commanded you, and behold,

I am with you to the end of the age.

This was the great commission that Jesus gave the disciples.

So here are the disciples that Jesus had made. And

as he's leaving, he says, all right, now, disciples, I

command you to go and make more disciples. And then

how is what is the means by which Jesus tells

them that they are to make disciples? He says, go therefore,

make disciples of all nations, baptizing the name of the

Fathers in the Holy Spirit, and then teach them all

that I've commanded you. Right, So how do you make disciples?

Jesus told disciples, you make disciples by teaching them the

Word of God. Can I tell you, young disciples here today,

how are you strength and your strengthen in the word

of God. God's word is the tool, It is the

instrument God uses to strengthen your souls. It's amazing. I

can tell you how many times in ministry I have

been caring for people and ministering to people. And I

tell you, and I've told you this before, there's been

times in ministry that I really just you know, this

is maybe hard for you believe, but there's times that

I'm speechless. I don't know what to say. Walking situations

where someone's lost a loved one, or someone's dying, What

do you say in those moments? Never forget. There's one

time I went to a home and we're visiting and

went to a shut in and she had just really

been suffering and been in and out the hospital, and

her husband was there with her, and they were in

their their their probably their eighties, and and it didn't

like she had much time left and they were just broken, discouraged.

And I walked in that home and I didn't know

what to say to them that day, and so finally,

just after a few moments, just listening and allowing them

to share their suffering physically and sorrow that they had,

I just turned God's word and passage God put on

my heart that day was Matthew eleven, twenty eight and

twenty nine, and I read to them, come to me,

all who labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rests.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for

I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest

for your souls. Share that passage with them, and you

could see it just fell all over them so much

so I'll never get the lady name was Flora Bell.

Flora Bell said, pastor can tell me what that verse was,

and she got a pen out and wrote that passage

of scripture. A few months later she would die and

I would be I had the honor of preaching your service,

and I was just burdened. I just felt like this

was the passage that God gave them so much comfort

in their last month. So there's a passage I shared

in her funeral, And I remember at the end of

the funeral, no granddaughters came up and she her grandmother

had giving her a ring, and she said, Pastor, I

want to show you something. And she came up to me.

She took that ring off, and she said, look inside

of it. And inside that ring of her grandmother she

had engraved Matthew eleven, twenty eight and twenty nine. I

had no idea in that moment, when I'd share that

passage with them three months ago, how much it would

minister her and how much it would minister the generations ahead.

You see, listen to me this morning when I went

into that room, and I went to that hospital many times,

and I've shared with many people. They don't need my words,

you know what they need, young disciples or older disciples.

They need the Word of God. That is the word

that brings strength and it brings comfort. Today as you're

a young believer and you say, you know, I'm struggling

with this issue in my life, or I'm struggling in

this area of my life, or I feel like spiritually

I and weak today? Can I encourage you? How do

you find strength? How do you how do you grow?

How you become stronger? God strengthens you through his word.

He strengthens your soul. So today, can I ask you

young believers turn to the Word of God. Find strength

in the Word of God. Can I tell you, older disciples,

when you're trying to disciple younger disciples, it's important that

you don't share your opinions. Share with them the Word

of God. That's what they need. So can I encourage you?

How do we How are young disciples strengthen God's word

strengthens young disciples souls? Would you say, second, how are

young disciples strengthened? They're no strengthened through God's Word. They're

also strengthened through perseverance. The Bible says in this passage scripture,

you look at verse twenty two, strengthening the souls of disciples.

Paul also gives them words of encouragement. He says, this

encouraging them to continue in the faith. This word continue

as e meno, and the word manu is the word

to continue there in our English translation, and it means

to stay or remain. It means to stay in one place,

to don't leave, to stay engaged in this area. It's

the same idea Jesus were really digging upon. How knowledge

Jesus how Paul discipled about how Jesus discipled. This is

a passage that Jesus gave to his disciples when he

was discipling them. Was John fifteen four and five. And

he says, abide in Me and I in you. As

the branches cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides

in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides

in Me and I in him, it is he that

bears much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Jesus taught his disciples, Hey, remain in the Lord. Don't waiver,

don't back off, don't sway back and forth to different things.

Remain in me, and if I am in you, you

bear much fruit. It's exactly the same message that Paul

is telling disciples here as he's going back and it's

going to these young churches. He says, listen, you're strengthened

through the Word of God. But can I tell you young

believers today, you're strengthened by presseverance and Pressseverance produces faith.

It strengthens your faith. Most of you may or may

not know, but I in the past, I've spent a

lot of time hunting, and one of the things that

I loved was duck hunting. And I had a what

we called a duck dog, which is Labrador retriever. I

got him with six months old, and I trained him

to I didn't send him to a class or training

myself and and some of the basics. There's a book

called Duck Dog and I read and you try you

train them when you get on that six months old.

You trained them to basic and the basis or comesit stay.

And I trained my lab his name was Conrad, and

and I trained him for the basics, and I trained

him to come, I come, to to to sit, to come.

But one of the real struggles with Conrad was to stay.

He would listen, he would come, I mean he would come,

he would sit, but getting him to stay by me

was really difficult. And particularly when we would go out

duck hunting. We'd go out into a swamp land or

a marsh area and we would wade in and I'd

get him over to the spot and I would get

him to my side and I would tell him to stay,

and he would stay there. And sometimes I'd have to

hold him on the leash, and then you know, by

the time a bird would come over and buy a chance,

and this is keyword, by chance, I would actually hit

the bird right and the bird would go down. Then

I would send Conrad off to gother to treat the bird,

and then he was so I sent him, he would

he would go. Then I would call him back to

come back to me, and then I wouldn't want to stay.

But the problem with Conrad was I would send him

off and then he'd go on a joy ride. Oh

this is nature, you know. I know there's another dog

over here, and there's another hunter over here, and then

I would spend half of my time early hunting chasing

my dog instead of getting him to stay. And the

reason why it's also it's because it's sometimes not only

is there's distractions, but I also knew there were times

that where these places were danger, and I'd want him

to stay by my side, that he would avoid places

that there could be danger, whatever it may be. And

that's what Paul is teaching new believers here. You know,

as you go out and live your life for Jesus Christ,

there's gonna be all kinds of distractions that try to

pull you away from being beside Jesus. There's all kinds

of temptations. Sometimes it's relationships. Sometimes it's things that that

look neat and look fun. And all these things are

just distractions that pull you away from being beside Christ.

And Paul says, listen, presseverance, remain faithful, preserve, continue, remain

in Jesus. And there's gonna be things that are gonna

come against you. There's gonna be relationships that try to

pull you away from Jesus, your work or just to

try to pull you away from Jesus. Your hobbies are

going to try to pull you away from Jesus. And

all those these are very good things, they're not the

main thing. And the main thing is remaining beside Jesus.

Tell your young disciples today, they're strengthened. Their souls are

strengthened by God's word. Young disciples grow or they're strengthened

through perseverance and preference. Perseverance strengthens young disciples faith. Can

I encourage you today, young disciple, persevere, remain in the Lord.

You stay by his side. It will strengthen your faith

to allow the distractions of other things to pull you

away from Jesus. Remain can I encourage your older disciples

to encourage the younger disciples. Some of them are maybe

drifting off a little bit. Can I encourage your old

disciple to come alongside of a younger disciple and say, hey, listen,

stay called you're drifting offul little ways. Never get my grandpa.

He had this loving way. When he knew I wasn't

living like I should as a teenager, he would come

along beside me and he put his arm around me

and says, he'd say, Jonathan, I love you now, but

you know right now what you're doing is not right.

You need to get back things. You need to get

back to the Lord. I love you and praying for you.

He didn't rebuke me, he didn't heart on me. He

just let me know, hey, it's time to come back.

I tell you, older disciples, it's so important that you

love younger disciples enough that you come alongside them and say, hey,

remain faithful to the Lord. But you see, and only

how young disciples are strengthened. They're strengthened through God's word.

They're strengthened through persevers, but also they're strengthened through tribulations.

Scripture says in this passage of verse twenty two strengthened

the souls of disciples encourage them to continue in faith,

saying that through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom

of God. You know, I believe that Paul and Barnabas

really went out of their way to go back through

the word that came. They wanted to go back through Lystra,

they wanted to go back through to Iconium. They wanted

to go back to Antiopasidia, because in every town that

they had been in and shared the gospel was in

every town they faced tribulations. You remember the passage we

looked at just a week or so was Paul was

literally stoned and drug out of the city and thought

was dead. And Paul knew when he left that the

very ones who came after him would be the very

ones who would come after these young disciples. And so

he was important for Paul to communicate to these young disciples,

you will face tribulations, and these tribulations will strengthen your

character as a young disciple. You know, by the way,

it wasn't just Paul who taught this, but this is

consistent which Jesus is teaching. First John to six says

whoever abides in him ought to walk in the same

way in which he walked, which was the way that

Jesus walked. He took the walk all the way from

god Gotha to the Cross, and he suffered for you

and I. And if he suffered, so will we what

suffer tribulations. Not only that, as I mentioned before, Paul

himself faced tribulations, He faced suffering being stolen at Listra,

just as we saw last week. Paul, he would even

say when he would talk about the sufferings and tribulations

he faced in life. And this is so you're talking

about the two greatest men in scripture right in this

in our history Jesus and he faced tribulations and Paul

one of the greatest examples of a Christian in the Bible.

And Paul would say in Second Corinthians four ten, always

carrying the body of death, so that life of Jesus

may be manifested in our bodies. Listen, if Jesus faced tribulations,

if Paul faced tribulations, so will you face tribulations. And

understand that the tribulations that we phase God is using

that to make us strong. You know, one of the

greatest preachers of all times was His name is Charles Spurgeon.

He was actually called the Prince of Pete Preachers. He

preached in London and at nineteen he started his career

and he became so popular that he would fill up

his sanctuary really quick. It was eleven if twelve hundred

people would sit in his congregation. So he built a

larger building and outgrew that. At some point he came

to a place where he decided, where you know what

I need to I want to speak to greater masses,

and so he rented on the London New Park Street chapel.

I mean, I'm sorry, that was the church. He rented

the Surrey Gardens music hall in London. He came under

some prayers. Some people came against him and said this

is a music hall and you're taking a music hall

and you turn it into a sanctuary. That shouldn't work,

and so they came out against him. But he pressed

on and this place would see tenenty twelve thousand. So

he had this church service in there and the sun

the Saturday night before the service. He really became burdened

that maybe something's not right and maybe he would be

responsible as the church service started, It had a few

songs in and somebody was in the balcony cried out fire, fire, fire,

and it led to a panic that people were literally

pulling people's clothes off trying to get out of the building,

and seven people died in twenty eight people were critically injured.

It would send Spurgeon into a deep depression and sorrow

that he would suffer for months before he would ever

get back into pulpit again. I say that to say

you would think the greatest man who ever walked the earth,

the greatest Christian that ever walked the earth, and the

greatest pastor, none of which escaped tribulations. You know, one

thing that I've learned in training for runs and marathons

and whatever it may be, is that every time you

stretch out further and you go longer miles, it burns

out your legs. So when I run for a very

long time, especially I extend my miles, when I come

back in, my legs are like really just they're hurting,

And the next day it'll be hard to walk up

steps and it'll be like that for a few days.

But you know the pain of that my legs is

the strengthening of my legs that I can run further

in the days to come. Can I tell you the

tribulations that you face today, or the tribulation that you're

facing in your life today, the ones that Jesus faced,

Paul face in Spurgeon face, strengthen them for the days

I had? It produces character in them. Can I tell

you today God is using his word to strengthen your soul?

Can I tell you today that God is you using

your perseverance to strengthen your faith? Can I tell you

today listen, God wants to use the tribulations in your

life to strengthen you, to strengthen your character. Heard one

person say it this way. God uses the trials and

problems of our Christian life to strip away the worthlessness,

I mean, the worthless and self defeating habits of our

old nature. And this allows the glorious new nature, God's

own loving, holy character to appear, appear and triumph in us.

God's using the tribulations to make you more holy and

also to produce His holy character in you. Guys, See,

as we continue this morning, look knowing God's words strengthen

young disciples. Souls. Perseverance strengthen young disciples. Faith. Tribulations strengthen

young disciples character. But fourth church leadership strengthens young disciples commitment.

Scriptures has here as ay, he comes in this passage

of Scriptures, look at verse twenty two, and strengthened the

soldier's operles. He encouraged them continuing the fate, saying that

through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.

And when they appointed elders for them in every church,

with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord

and whom they had believed, the Bible says, and only

they did all these things. But they also did something

of putting leadership in the church. It says they put

appointed elders for them in every church. So listen. So

when they went to Elystra they strengthened. They did the

same thing, and that added elders in Lystra and Iconium

and Antioch, and all these churches they put elders. They

said that they committed, They prayed over them, they fasted,

and committed them to the Lord. You would say, what

was the purpose of Paul putting leaders in there? The

purpose of Paul putting leaders in there is Paul knew

hey it's easy to follow Lord when when Paul's there

and he's encouraged them. But he knew. Paul knew that

he had the other missionary journeys ahead, and he knew

as he left that they wouldn't have someone there to

watch over them. So he pointed leaders in every church

for them to be an example that these people would follow.

You know, the Bible tells Us and one Corinthians eleven,

verse one, Paul would say these words about his role

as an elder, as an apostle, he would say, this

be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Paul

understood this. God had given him a position of authority

of apostle or elder, and the role of that was

that he might follow Christ. And that would be an

example to younger believers of saying, you know what, I

want to be like Paul. I want to live like Paul.

And because I know Paul is living like Jesus. And

Paul put elders in place, because he knew when his

example left they needed another example to follow. He put

leaders in place that the leaders might strengthen the young

disciples commitment. Can I tell you as we come to

first Timothy four twelve, Paul was talking to an elder

there named Timothy. Timothy was saved at Lystra and we

know he eventually becomes an elder and a pastor's who's

an Ephesus. But as he's talking to Timothy in First

Timothy four twelve, Listen Ways tells Timothy, let no one

despise you of your youth, but set believers an example

in speech and conduct and love and faith and impurity.

He said. He says, Timothy, you're an elder, and as

an elder, you need to be example to your people.

They need to look at you and say, you know what,

I want to be like him. When I was a

seventeen year old boy, sixteen seventeen, I began going to

a church and how to use pastor there his name

was Clay Slatin, who's really struggling with some things in

my life at that time. And in Clay saw something

in me. He mentored me, he brought me in, He

discipled me, and I idolized Clay. I saw that he

loved the Lord, and I wanted to love the Lord

like him. And that's the purpose of elders, that's the

purpose of pastors, that's the purpose of deacons there to

be role models for younger disciples. Can I tell you

today we need church leaders here at our church. We

need church leaders who expire to live godly lives in

order to lead others. We need elders here at Bethesda.

We need deacons here at Bethesda, and we need them

not just to have someone to fill a role or

a spot on the deacon board or the elder board. No,

we need leaders. We need deacons. We need elders who

will set the example for the younger believers in our

church and says, you know what I want to be.

I want to love the Lord like they do. Leadership

strengthens young disciples commitment. Lastly, as I finish up this morning,

testimony strengthens young disciples worship. I was studying this passage

of Scripture and working through it this morning of I

mean not this morning, this week. I was looking through

the ending of this passage of Scripture, and it's interesting

that they leave there and they did all this, and

the Bible says they go all the way back. It

kind of gives us the in verses twenty four and

twenty five. It shows us kind of the path in

which they follow to go all the way to Antioch,

to Purga and Italian, and they traveled all the way

back to Antioch. Scripture says in verse twenty six Antioch

their references at Antia Syria. If you go back to

the beginning of chapter thirteen, Antiox Syria is a church

that commissioned Paul and Barnabas to leave out and be

on mission. And so the Bible says, they go all

the way back to Antioch Syria. They go back to

the church that send them out, I know, if you will,

their home church, and it shows us what they do

when they come back, and the Bible says in verse

twenty six, and from there they sell to Antioch, where

they'd been commended to the grace of God for the

work they had fulfilled. In verse twenty seven, that says,

when they arrived, they gathered the church together, and they

declared all that God had done with them, and how

He opened up the door of faith through the gentiles.

And there remained no little time with the disciples. You

know what. The Bible says, They traveled and they strengthened

all these disciples, and they come back home their home church,

and they gathered everybody together, had a big church service.

Everybody comes together. They'd want to send them out, prayed

for them and commission them. Everybody comes together and they

bring everybody back in, and everybody's anxious. Everybody's anxious because

they know they've traveled all over the world sharing the gospel.

Everybody wants to hear what they do. So they bring

them in. They want to tell them what they had,

and so that when they bring them in, they tell

them how bad the food was. Now, yeah, they tell

them how bad the travel was. Now they tell them

how evil the people were. They tell them how bad

they were treated. None of that's not what they Scripture says,

is it? The Bible says, when they gather everybody together,

what did they tell them? The Bible says in verse

twenty seven, when they arrived, they declared all that God

had did. They gave testimony. Hey, let me tell you

all what God did. It wasn't all about how bad

things were. It was all about what God had did.

It wasn't all about what they had done. It was

all about what God had done. You know what bragging is.

Bragging is when we brag on something right, either something

we've done or something we have or something someone else does.

If men may be brag about what kind of car

they have. Ladies may brag about how good their cooking is.

Grandparents may brag about their grandchildren. Their parents may brag

about something their children have done. Individuals we may Hey,

it's starting up next week. You're gonna hear a lot

of bragging next Sunday. I promise you there's gonna be

a lot of bragging from those wolf packs. It's gonna

be a lot of raging from those targhells. Maybe it

not be bragging, or it may be a lot of

bragging from those blue devils. There's going to be a

lot of bragging about our sports teams, and we'll bragging

about a lot of things. But how often do we

brag about our Jesus? You know? On the contrary, when

we talk to people, people ask how you're doing. Oh,

my week was awful. Man, Let me just tell you

about all the things was bad about this week, This

and that and this and it was hard and this

persons was ugly to me, or this happened, or went

to this restaurant and the food was bad. Whatever, We

talk about all the things that was bad. You know what,

young disciples need. They need to hear the testimony of

the goodness of God in your life. We come in

May we just say, hey, there's a lot of mess

from last week, but let me just tell you what

that God did for me. Listen, testimony strengthens young disciples worship.

What did they declare? It isn't that Paul was stoned. Hey,

let me just tell you that killed me. Paul told me.

Let me just tell you what God did. Let me

tell you about how people got saved. Let me tell

you in Lystra there was a there was a grandmother

named Eunice. She got saved, and her daughter Lois got saved,

and her son Timothy he got saved. Let me just

tell you what God has done. Can I encourage you

young disciples today? You say, how do I strengthen my faith?

You strengthen your faith by declaring the declaring your life

what God has done for you. So I challenge you

this week in your life, would you take some time

and just reflect on things that God has done for

you last week? Now you take some time to tell

someone about what God has done in your life. Would

you take some time older disciples to come along a

younger disciple and say, let me just let me just

tell you what God has done in my life. Listen, God,

use this testimony the strengthen young disciples worship. May we

be a part of that? I ask you today, just

encourage you as a young believer, as a disciple today,

how are you being strengthened through the word of God?

How is God's word strengthen your soul? Going to ask

you today, how are you persevering and how is your

perseverance strengthening your faith? To ask you today, what tribulations

are you facing today? And how are you recognizing God

in the midst of this tribulation, the midst of this storm. God,

you want to use this storm to produce character in me? God,

help me see that this week? How are you today

recognizing that we need leaders to reroll models for younger believers?

And how are you a role model to someone else,

an example for someone else to follow? Lastly, how are

you using your testimony of what God is done your

life to strengthen the other's worship? And how are you

using the goodness of God in your life to strengthen

your worship? You know the process of growing a disciple

is also called sanctification, and sanctification can be compared to

an iceberg. You know, an iceberg. Almost ninety percent of

that iceberg is underwater. Yet the sun shines on top

of that iceberg, and it is to the part that

is exposed, and it melts the top, and as it

melts the top, the lower part begins moving upward in

the same way in your life. Listen, God, today, through

his word and through his Holy Spirit, and through his

word today he might be shining his light on something

in your life, a weakness. And today listen, he wants

to bring about changing you, and he wants to bring

up other parts that you don't really maybe see yet,

and begin working his sanctification in you. Would you say, today, Lord,

what areas do I need work? And God, I'll open

up my soul to you and say, God, strengthen me.

I want to be your disciple and I want to

be a disciple that strengthens other disciples. Will you pray

with me? Oh, ask the band to make their way up. Lord,

We love you. We thank you Lord for today and God,

you are so good to us. We thank you that

you shine the light on the weak areas, areas that

are exposed in our life that sometimes, Lord, we need

work on. And Lord, I pray today that the Word

of God has effectively Lord exposed areas. And Lord, I

pray today that Lord, our hearts should be open to

allow your spirit to work. So where there it is

today we're struggling in some tribulation. Lord, I pray that

be those who say, Lord, Lord, help it produce character

in me, help it make me stronger. Or I pray

that be those today says you know what, I've not

been persevering in my faith. I've allowed some things to

pull me away from Jesus. Today I need to come

closer to Him. I pray that be those days says

you know what my faith this week? And those because

I really have not been in God's word today, I

need to get in the word of God. I pray

that be those today that says, you know what, it's

really my worship. I've been declaring all the things that

have been bad in my life, not declaring the good

things that God You've done in and through me. Lord. However, Lord,

you work today. I pray we would use this time

to surrender Lord to you, and Lord, help us, Lord

look to how we can encourage others around us. Lord,

we love you. I thank you Lord for your word Today. Lord,

as we come to this time of invitation, I pray

that to be those who come to this altar need

to do that. I pray they can do that. I

pray that maybe some today need to come along with

the arm around a young disciple today and just say, hey,

I'm praying for you, I want to encourage you. Maybe

they would, in this home invitation to be those who

would come alongside others right here in this room and

seek to encourage a young disciple who's maybe walking through something. Lord. However, Lord,

you lead us to respond. Now, I pray we would

do be faithful, Lord to what you lead us to.

In your name, we pray Amen Jesus to